A diagnostic hearing assessment is needed to determine the severity and type of hearing loss for each patient. Depending on your specific hearing troubles there are various treatment options available. There are multiple tests completed during a hearing assessment and an assessment can include all or some of the test listed below:
Behavioral testing:
Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT): You will repeat various 2 syllable words.
Word Recognition Score (WRS): You will repeats 25-50 words that are age appropriate this assesses your ability to understand and identify common words
Traditional Audiometry: You will raise you hand or pushes a button when stimulus is presented, it is just like the “beep test” that many people experienced during school screenings.
Other tests:
Tympanometry: looks at the health of the eardrum, middle ear bones, and eustacian tube
- Type A is normal
- Type B is a flat response and can signify fluid in the middle ear
- Type C is negative pressure
Acoustic reflexes: test of the auditory pathway from the middle ear across the acoustic nerve
Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE): A test to verify the health of the cochlea, specifically the outer hair cells. A healthy cochlea typically corresponds to normal hearing sensitivity. During the OAE test, a microphone is placed in the ear. It sends soft clicking sounds, and a computer then records the inner ear’s response to the sounds. This test can be used with infants to adults.
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR): an electrophysiological test of the auditory pathway and can be used to as a way to verify the integrity of the auditory system and can give us a estimate of hearing sensitivity. In the ABR test earphones are worn and sensors are placed on the head to measure brain wave activity in response to the sound. This test can be completed with infants to adults.